Having plundered more gold from Beijing during these Olympic games than at any time since the Boxer rebellion, the British were left empty-handed in the Bird's Nest stadium last night.

Phillips Idowu, the world champion triple jumper and a firm favourite to clinch the title, missed out on the gold medal by five centimetres after his 17.62m leap. It was a sign of just how much Team GB has achieved during these gilded games that silver came as a relative disappointment.

But seldom have 24 hours elapsed since the start of these Olympics without some gold to catch the eye. So it was yesterday when Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson - best mates as much as crewmates - became Olympic champions in the Star class. In what is traditionally the most competitive fleet of the Olympic regatta, Percy and Simpson knew that, to come away with gold, they would have to finish ahead of the leading Swedish team of Frederik Loof and Anders Ekstrom without slipping too far behind Brazil's Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada.

Percy, an Olympic champion in the Finn class eight years ago in Sydney, steered the race to perfection. "We're up against the best sailors in the world in this division," said Percy yesterday. "Winning here was great because I did it with my best mate, whereas in Sydney it was on my own."

In the Bird's Nest, Idowu had taken the lead in the final's third round by recording his best jump of the year. But Nelson Evora of Portugal beat him with a fourth attempt that took him 17.67m, only one centimetre short of Idowu's personal best. Had the 29-year-old put in the performance of a lifetime, it would have won him an event once dominated by his countryman and rival, Jonathan Edwards. Instead he had to settle for silver. "It's not what I wanted but I'll take it," said Idowu. "It was a really tough competition. I was really close but in the end it wasn't quite enough.

"It hurts. I'm upset. I came here to achieve a lot more and I just fell short. I've come a long way, though. Last year I wasn't even in the mix for medals."

There was more of a feeling of squander at the performance of the 4x100 relay team as they relinquished the Olympic title won in Athens. Four years ago they brought home an unexpected gold after the US fumbled a changeover in the final, winning the race by one hundredth of a second. Again, American sloppiness seemed to hand Britain the advantage last night when they dropped the baton in the semi-final. Teamwork has always been regarded as British sprinters' strongest asset, but that unravelled when the anchorman, Craig Pickering, took the baton outside of the changeover box.

Long before Pickering's suspicions were confirmed, his features were visibly scarred by the realisation he had denied his team-mates, Simeon Williamson, Tyrone Edgar and Marlon Devonish, their silver medals behind four remarkable, invincible Jamaican sprinters.

"I feel like I've let the team down and the country down," admitted Pickering. "Unfortunately, for the next four years, I am going to be remembered as the guy who messed up." Yet Devonish, the senior member of the team as the only one of the Athens champions not to have left the sport, was keen to lift the burden from Pickering's shoulders. "We're bitterly disappointed," he said.

"There's a lot of expectation on this team. We didn't come here to play games, but it's a team event and we take full responsibility. There are no excuses."

In the Shunyi Rowing Park yesterday, David Davies took silver to ensure Britain could furnish three of the six medals available to men and women in the 10km swim following the successes of Cassie Patten and Keri-Anne Payne on Wednesday.

The 23-year-old Welshman caused controversy after reacting to what has occasionally been a characteristic of these games: athletes being manhandled by overzealous officials. Davies retaliated by emptying his water bottle over one.